recieving of pendulum serves

hi alois and jeff,

my game is drastically improving thanks to your advice! how ever...

im able to read sidespin and what other spin my opponents put on their pendulum serve but i only know 1 way of recieving these serves(when they are long only): chopping. this becomes unreliable when they serve short and spinny. i try to block or punch block sometimes but it almost never lands.

as u said in return of serves, flick short push and placement, my flicks only land on the table when they put backspin or no spin on the ball. can u tell me bout short push an flicks usage more accurately? please give me a few tips on a short block for topspin/sidespin serves too .

thank you !

Hi Shripathi,

If the serve is short you should either short push, long push or flick.

The short push is the safest of these options. To make an effective short push you need to have little forward motion.  Keep your hand really relaxed and aim to get the ball low over the net.  The soft hand allows you to absorb some of the spin.

Whole you are recognising the spin on the ball, it is important to hit against a lot of serves and practice returning them with an effective short push.  There is not much margin for error on these strokes so it does take a lot of touch.

Try not to think about it being a short block.  Think about it being a soft touch of the ball with extremely soft hands.  The angle of the bat is altered to allow for the different spin of the serve.

If the ball has no spin or topspin with any amount of sidespin, then you can think about flicking the return.  These serves can be harder to push short so in this case it can be a better option to flick.